


Finished Business

by Raptorofwar



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghost Hunters, F/F, Ghost Hunters, Multi, One Shot, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:47:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27050674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raptorofwar/pseuds/Raptorofwar
Summary: Akko's recently fallen into the ghost-hunting craze, and Amanda as her loyal girlfriend is roped into it. Their first ever ghost hunt will be in an old manor in Wedinburgh...(Don't worry about the major death tag. I mean, if it's a ghost hunting AU, someone has to be dead.)Inspiring idea: https://blazestarninja13.tumblr.com/post/631899244877512704
Relationships: Atsuko "Akko" Kagari/Amanda O'Neill, Diana Cavendish/Amanda O'Neill, Diana Cavendish/Atsuko "Akko" Kagari
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Finished Business

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Blazestarninja](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blazestarninja/gifts).



> You have been deceived.
> 
> So, this isn't really a full fic. It's really just an idea that I took and ran with, and in doing so came up with a "plot". There are probably bits and pieces in between that one could insert to make this more of an actual fic and less of a "random blurbs slapped together" thing. However, at this point you could probably read it as a coherent full story.
> 
> I don't know what I'm saying. Ah well. Enjoy!

They stared up at the decrepit old manor. The upper floor windows were alternatively boarded up, shuttered, or obscured by heavy drapes, and the centuries-old disused candle lamps leading up to the entryway were festooned with cobwebs. Piles of dead leaves blew listlessly around the wide driveway, and the first droplets of rain started to fall. The moon was obscured by heavy, ominous clouds.

Amanda gulped.

“Hey, uh, Akko. Are you sure about this? I mean, this place doesn’t look very… safe.”

“Oh come on, Amanda! It’ll be fun!”

Amanda turned, and almost laughed. Akko looked comical, wearing a fishing tackle vest for its many pockets and cargo pants likewise, adorned in various bits of equipment, ranging from the almost technologically sound to the utterly occult. It ranged from a “spirit box” Akko had fashioned out of an old radio, a flashlight taped onto her shoulder, to a frigging crucifix tucked into her breast pocket. Various blacklights, thermometers, and other measurements hung from her belt. Amanda herself had simply dressed up warm, thick jeans and a gray hoodie.

Amanda shook her head. Akko was  _ really _ into this ghost stuff. Amanda loved her girlfriend to bits, but ever since she’d fallen into the ghost craze, she’d gone nuts about it; reading every article she could find on the Internet, doing her best to get into trouble with various strange Internet gadgets, and most importantly pestering Amanda about this bit of ghost information or that piece of knowledge. All of it gave Amanda the heebie jeebies. Not that she’d ever admit it.

“Packed everything, princess?” Amanda smirked.

Akko beamed, not picking up the sarcasm. “EMF reader, smudge sticks, remote video camera, crucifix, flashlights, blacklights, thermometers, everything! I even grabbed the ouija board.” She rummaged in her backpack and true to her word extracted a wooden ouija board, shaking it excitedly in front of Amanda.

“Look, Akko…” Amanda tentatively put her hand on Akko’s shoulder. “You know I’ll support you through everything. But this is a bit much, isn’t it? We’re kind of breaking and entering into a dangerous old mansion - well, this is practically a castle, ain’t it. And for what? It’s just gonna be cold, and uncomfortable, and damp. And anyways, ghosts aren’t real.”

Amanda hoped they weren’t real.

Akko grinned impishly. “What? Is Amanda O’Neill  _ scared _ ?”

Amanda pushed her trepidations down. This was a dare, and Amanda O’Neill never turned down a dare. She punched Akko playfully in the arm. “Come on, you know I’m not scared of anything! Watch.” She marched confidently up the stairs to the front door, raised her right foot, and kicked the door wide open. They swung inwards slowly, creaking loudly.

“WHAT UP, BITCHES?” she hollered, echoing down the foyer.

_____

The rain had started coming down in force while they were searching. All of Akko’s gadgetry had come to nothing; not a whisper on the spirit box, zero on the EMF reader, and the ouija board had turned up nothing. Amanda pretended her hand was moving, and Akko had freaked out when it spelled death, until Amanda started giggling. Then Akko pouted and refused to speak to Amanda for five minutes, until she excitedly pointed out a mark on the wall she was convinced was ghost writing.

Now they were in some kind of large bedroom in the second story. The wooden flooring was a lot more sound than Amanda expected from such an old building. Maybe it was the stone frame.

Rain drummed on the windows, and Amanda groggily checked her watch.

“Akko, lay off, will ya? It’s one in the morning. We should head back. Tonight’s a bust.”

Akko ignored her.

Amanda frowned at her, then froze. “What was that?”

Akko looked up? “What?”

“That!”

A sudden sound flicked against the window. Not rain. Akko’s eyes widened, and she whipped out her EMF reader.

“Nothing. So that means it’s a ghost who doesn’t show on EMF? Would that be a…” She looked up, and a lurid, drooling face was right next to her, teeth bared. Akko shrieked and leaped backwards.

“Amanda! There’s a… a… oh.” Amanda was rolling on the floor in fits of laughter. Akko growled.

“AMANDA O’NEILL!” Akko shouted. “You are the biggest, most pig-headed git!”

Amanda wiped a tear from her eye and pushed herself to her feet. “You should’ve seen the look on your face,” she choked out. “Akko, seriously. You got that excited over a pebble clinking against the window? If there are any ghosts, and there aren’t, they sure as fuck aren’t here.”

Akko glared at her. Amanda’s laughter died in her throat, and she gulped. Ok, maybe that crossed a line.

Suddenly, a flash of lightning shone through the window, followed almost instantaneously by a resounding crack of thunder. Amanda jumped, suddenly tense, her hairs on end.

There was a loud scraping against the floor.

Akko gulped. "Amanda, that wasn't you, was it?"

"Don't worry 'bout it, babe," Amanda said, looking plenty worried. "It's an old house. Lots of weird noises in old houses." She shot Akko an uneasy grin. "I'll protect you if a ghost comes knocking."

The door suddenly slammed shut with a loud BANG. Akko screamed. Amanda yelped and jumped fully into Akko's arms, her own wrapped tightly around Akko's neck. A part of Akko's brain inanely thought of Scooby and Shaggy. It might have been comedic if it wasn't terrifying.

The lock turned with a loud click, locking them in the room.

Akko and Amanda breathed quickly, their breaths coming out in puffs of vapor. The temperature in the room dropped precipitously; Amanda's thermometer read negative 10 Celsius precisely. Akko's EMF reader dialed up and up, a piercing whine. Piercing, but it couldn't obscure the noises of loud, crisp footsteps, approaching their door.

Pale blue light shone through the door cracks just before a pale, ethereal woman in eighteenth century dress stepped straight through the door, an irate expression on her face. She flipped her blond locks back and fixed the terrified duo with a livid glare.

"Just what are you two doing in my house?"

_____

Diana Cavendish was tired of this shit.

Ghost hunters didn’t usually come knocking. The Cavendish manor was fairly peaceful and quiet for such a large old house, and Diana did her best to keep everything in order. She was only one person (well, former person), but everything was as in order as she could manage. It was more difficult, and took more effort, to manipulate things compared to when she was alive.

Anyways, back to being tired of this shit. No, what Diana was tired of was how the two miscreants wrapped around each other had been screaming for the last five minutes. Really. What were they teaching children these days? Obviously not sense. Nor manners.

The redhead who’d talked such a big talk throughout their disgraceful romp in  _ her  _ house was now being physically carried by the brunette. At first, the fact that redhead’s scream was higher pitched was amusing, although now it pierced Diana’s ears painfully.

Girlfriends, Diana could clearly deduce, even if she hadn’t been watching the two throughout the house while mustering the energy to respond. They even inhaled in sync.

Diana clapped three times, loudly. “Alright, stop being hysterical.”

The brunette, still screaming, dropped the redhead on the ground. The redhead scrambled backwards on all fours, pushing herself into the corner, never missing a breath. In fact, Diana could swear her pitch rose a quarter octave.

The brunette, on the other hand, picked up a rotted plank, and swung it straight through Diana’s head. It went through, of course. Diana stared, bemused.

The two continued to scream. Diana pressed her hands to her ears.

“COULD EVERYONE JUST SHUT UP!”

_____

Wind howled. Unsecured items flew against the walls. Akko’s hair was blown into a tangled mess. The scream was earsplitting, and both Akko and Amanda pressed their hands against their ears.

Diana closed her mouth. Coughed. “My apologies for that outburst, but you two were quite hysterical.”

Akko shook herself out, and took out a notebook. “Banshee,” she said, writing that in carefully.

“So, Ms. Banshee-”

“My name is Diana of house Cavendish, a long, illustrious line, and I’d appreciate a little more respect as you refer to me, you vile intruder.”

“Ok, Ms. Diana. My name is Atsuko Kagari, Akko for short. She’s Amanda O’Neill. Is it ok if I just call you Diana?”

Diana nodded slowly.

“So, how old are y-”

“You broke into my house, my place of rest and sanctuary, to ask me trivial questions about how old I am.”

Akko frowned. “Well, also to maybe get a few pictures…”

Diana put her face in her hands. Akko babbled on.

“Proof of a ghost is important! Without it, no one on the ghost-hunting boards would take me seriously, much less my other friends! And anyways, it’d be a shame not to get a picture of such a pretty ghost.”

Diana flushed. Amanda didn’t know ghosts could flush. She was pretty while flushing as well. Akko kept talking as if she didn’t notice, though

“Be that as it may,” Diana said, cutting Akko off and trying to regain her composure, “I’d rather my visitors announce themselves in advance. So please,” she gestured towards the door, “Leave.”

Amanda stood up and grabbed Akko’s sleeve, pulling her towards the door. “Ok, Ms. Not-at-all-terrifying-ghost-lady, we’ll be off now. Thanks for not murdering us.”

Akko pulled back. “Wait!” she shouted as Diana turned away. “What if we helped you move on?”

Diana stopped, cocking her head. “Move on?”

“Akko, let’s just go…” Amanda hissed out of the side of her mouth.

Akko ignored her. “Yeah! What if we helped fix your unfinished business.”

Diana blinked. “You two? Finish what I couldn’t do in a century?”

“We can do it! Totally!”

Diana sighed and smiled. “Fine. You’re welcome to try.”

“So. We need to find the Cavendish secret library.”

_____

The trio walked further into the mansion, Amanda in front, trying to make up for earlier. “I’ll protect you gals,” she said, while Akko snickered behind her back.

“See? Nothing to be scared about,” Amanda said for the umpteenth time. “I told you Akko, I’ve got you.”

Diana poked her head through the wall. “Boo,” she said in a monotone.

Amanda shrieked and jumped backwards, tripping over her own feet and landing on her butt.

Akko walked over and helped her up. “Nothing to be scared about?” she asked slyly.

“Shut up, you.”

“The big, tough Amanda O’Neill, scared of ghosts.”

Amanda rolled her eyes, but smiled. “Alright, I’m kind of terrified. Of ghosts. And all this. Honestly, I don’t read most of the stories you send me, I’m so scared.”

Akko smiled and reached her hand out, grasping Amanda’s and giving it a gentle squeeze.

Diana watched them out of the corner of her eye. They were sweet, and while their little antics were distracting and silly, they made her as well as each other smile. The duo reminded her of her old friends, Hannah and Barbara. A couple of regular “gals being pals”, if you caught the drift.

“So, Diana… I was wondering…” Akko said. “I don’t know if this is too sensitive or rude, and maybe you’re delicate about it, but I’d really like to know-”

“Know how I died?” Diana responded, without looking back.

Akko stayed silent. Amanda looked back, a mildly stricken expression on her face.

“Consumption. Late 1800s. You’re right, it is rude, and I refuse to elaborate.” A hint of frost had crept into her voice, and the temperature dropped a few degrees.

“Sorry, sorry!” Amanda clapped a hand over Akko’s mouth and smiled nervously at Diana. To Akko she hissed, “What are you doing? You really wanna piss off a hundred-year-old ghost?”

“Aw, Diana’s not going to hurt you!”

“I might,” Diana muttered.

“Don’t talk like that about my girlfriend!”

Diana didn’t know what possessed her . “A shame, really. If either of you were single…”

Amanda smirked and raised an eyebrow, “Well, that’s no reason to stop anyone.”

“Wait, so…” Diana blushed. “Is… is that an offer?”

“Well, um… it was a joke, but…” Amanda was blushing now. Akko giggled; Amanda was so suave, up until someone reciprocated. Then she fell apart.

When Diana looked at her, though, Akko’s giggles died in her throat.  _ Damn _ , she was pretty. Her hair just cascaded down her shoulders, and she looked like she could be a princess. Maybe she was; this place was big enough.

Damnit, now  _ Akko _ was blushing.

The three girls had stopped walking, and were now standing around blushing, shooting nervous looks at each other.

This continued for a period of time that I, the narrator, have no interest in detailing, as it is both uneventful and uncompelling.

_____

“This is it,” Diana breathed.

It’d taken the greater portion of the night, falling into old secret compartments and hidden passages between inane locations that not even Diana had known about before Akko had accidentally pushed the button, pulled the switch, or activated the pressure plate on which they were hinged, Amanda was only better because she had the reflexes to catch herself before she plummeted into some dark crevice. And Diana never knew the manor even housed so many traps. Who designed this place to be such a death trap? What if a child living here had been hurt? She fumed silently for a moment, but let it go quickly. After all, the end was in sight.

A massive room carved straight out of the bedrock unfolded before her, chiseled floor-to-roof shelves laden high with tomes, books, and scrolls detailing a thousand years of Cavendish medical history, alongside countless medical remedies. Stone sickbeds organized themselves in lines and columns through the middle of the room, scraps of silken sheets still present on them. An unearthly green light filled the room, filtering down from the roof and a large central column that looked like it was made of roots.

“Woah,” Amanda said, for once at a loss for words.

Akko stepped further into the room and slowly spun. “Diana, this place is amazing! I can see why you wanted to find it.”

Diana followed her, eyes drinking in the sight. “Yes. It is.” She looked at Akko, smiling apologetically. “My earlier rudeness and skepticism was unfounded, it seems. In one evening you’ve found what I’ve failed to for the last two and a half centuries or so.” She paused, and tried to take Akko’s hand in hers, but her ghostly palm just passed straight through. Diana sighed and withdrew her hand. “Thank you.”

“The Cavendishes have always had a long history of care and compassion. This place was created to cure the sick and the wounded, regardless of status or origin. In wartime, this place tended both sides’ soldiers. Understandably, it had to be well hidden as a result. Unfortunately, our family suffered some hardships a long time before I was born, and the location of this place was lost.”

“My mother was the one who started the search for this library. She believed it was a crucial step in resurrecting the family name, and could benefit people for years to come. She poured her heart and soul into the search, and told me stories about it, about acts of kindness rarely found in the world today. I fell in love with it as much as she did.”

“When she fell sick, she did her best to continue to manage the house, the search, and my upbringing. She’d sit in bed for days, listening to me tell her the same stories she’d told me all those years ago.” Diana smiled, and raised a hand to wipe a tear from her eye. “She was kind until the last.”

“I continued the search, but my family members didn’t share my passion. My aunt, who assumed control over the household, chose to squander the remainder of our wealth on frivolities. For years we’d battle for control, and I waited for the day when I could take my place as head of the Cavendish household so she could stop running it into the ground.”

Diana sighed and shook her head. “Consumption grabbed hold of me a few days after the ceremony. Ironic, for me to go the same way my mother did, embarked on the same unfinished quest. It progressed quickly, and I passed.” She chuckled. “When I first started haunting the manor, I suspected Daryl-of-”

“Who?” Akko interrupted.

“Daryl was my aunt.”

“The hag,” Akko pouted. “Where’s her grave? I want to vandalize it.”

Diana laughed, a musical sound reminiscent of wind chimes. Akko smiled. She’d said that partly to cheer Diana up.

“Anyways, I suspected her of poisoning me, but her shock and her later regrets she put down in her diary seemed to be genuine. So it really was just a stroke of miserable luck.” Diana looked up again, wondrously appraising her surroundings. “And now, it’s done. Two lifetimes of work, cut short, is finished.”

Amanda stepped forward, hands behind her head. “So… what happens now?”

Diana smiled. “I pass on.”

Akko sniffed. Amanda and Diana looked, and saw an almost comically sad face. She pulled the two of them into a tight hug. Well, she technically only pulled Amanda in, but Diana floated closer for Akko’s sake.

“Diana, that was beautiful,” Akko sobbed. “I’m going,” SNIFF, “to miss you,” SNIFF, so much!”

Diana ran a hand through Akko’s hair. Akko felt a cool breeze pick up a few locks and float them gently.

“It’s my time, Akko. Everyone goes eventually.” Diana smiled and sat down on one of the cots, Amanda and Akko sitting on either side of her.

“Goodbye.” Diana closed her eyes, and waited.

And waited.

Akko peered over at Diana, whose brow was now furrowed.

Amanda stood back up. “Is this supposed to take a while, or…?”

“Shut up,” Diana hissed. She clenched her eyes closed.

A further minute passed. Diana sighed, and pushed herself to her feet, already pacing back and forth.

“Why isn’t it working? Why am I still here? I shouldn’t be here. My life goal is complete, there’s nothing more to resolve. Why am I not passing on?” Diana ran a frustrated hand through her hair.

Akko tried not to stare. Somehow, her messy hair made her look even better than before.

“I don’t get it! WHY?” Diana yelled, a hint of the banshee creeping back into her voice.

_ “Diana…” _ a soft, warm voice whispered.

Diana went quiet. Akko turned towards the voice. “Another ghost? Diana, do you know this one?”

Diana wordlessly stepped forwards, disregarding cots she took cogent effort to walk around before.

Amanda slowly lowered herself into a crouch behind the sickbed they were sitting at, only her eyes and her mop of red hair peeking out. “A-akko?” she stuttered. “Is there another ghost?”

Akko didn’t reply.

Diana stopped where the voice had come from, right in front of the pillar.

“Mother?” she said, breathlessly.

The green light shimmered and sparkled, and a rain of little emerald stars fell, coalescing into a larger-than-life woman in a nightgown. Diana inhaled sharply and put her hands over her mouth, tears now fully streaming down her face and disappearing before they hit the floor.

The woman reached out a hand and stroked Diana’s cheek, then leaned in, whispering into her ear. Diana laid her head against the gentle touch and wept openly, sobbing against a mother’s touch she hadn’t felt in two hundred fifty years.

Then the woman pulled away. Diana clutched onto her hand desperately.

“I have to go. Even appearing this long… Goodbye, my little angel,” the woman said, and shimmered. Her feet dissolved first, then her legs, all the way up her body, leaving her face for last. Little green stars flew back where they came from, merging with the ceiling..

Diana slumped to her knees. Akko and Amanda approached her.

“Diana?” Amanda said. “Do you need a moment?”

“ A hug. ” Diana said.

“Sorry, what?”

Diana looked up, tears running down her face. “I need a hug.”

Both of the girls unhesitantly wrapped their arms around Diana. Diana hugged them back, sobbing. Together, the hug felt almost corporeal.

Diana sniffled and wiped her eyes. “She told me… to live. That my life was cut too short, and to live a real life. That’s… just like her.” She smiled slightly. “So… I guess I’m sticking around a while longer.”

Amanda smiled. “You deserve one. What happens now?”

“There was an invitation earlier, if I didn’t mishear.” Diana moved her face closer to Amanda’s. Amanda’s lips suddenly felt very dry.

“So. Take me back to your place?”

_____

Sucy and Lotte sat in Akko and Amanda’s apartment, cups of coffee sitting before them. Morning sunlight shone through the blinds, and birds chirped cheerily outside.

“So, did you find any ghosts Akko?” Lotte asked.

Akko, her favorite Shiny Chariot t-shirt on, beamed. “Sure did! She’s really nice.”

“Any proof?” Sucy said, sipping from her mug.

Amanda walked out of the hallway in a tank top and shorts, having returned from her trip to the bathroom, yawning. “We didn’t get any photos or recordings. So… no conventional proof, no.”

“So this entire thing is Akko’s imagination, right?”

“Sucy!” Lotte frowned. “Be polite!”

“Hey!” Akko lightly slammed her palms into the table. “We did too see a ghost! Amanda saw it as well! Also, Lotte, were you really just humoring me?”

Lotte fidgeted in her seat. “Uh, well…”

Akko huffed. “I can’t believe my two best friends would think I was lying.”

Amanda smirked, sitting down on the couch, an empty mug at her hand. “Hey, Diana?” she hollered. “Could you pour me some coffee?”

The coffee pot rose silently into the air. Lotte stared at it in shock, mouth hanging wide open.

The pot floated silently over to Amanda and tilted itself, letting out a gentle stream of coffee, filling Amanda’s cup three quarters full. Amanda grinned. “Thanks, babe.” She blew a kiss towards the pot.

Sucy watched all this impassively. “Huh. That’s new,” she said.

Akko folded her arms. “So there!” she said triumphantly.

Lotte fainted.

**Author's Note:**

> And not a single kiss. I don't know how to write kisses. Hell, I don't know how to write romance. Is this how you do the do? Fuck if I know. Kisses are too lewd anyways, although I've already written the handholding, so I'm not sure how much lewder it can get.


End file.
